|
|
Commercial publishers interested in producing an actual book (or
other media form) of the material below are encouraged to contact the author.
Contents
Back to top
- Lecture Notes for Mechanics and Thermodynamics
-
Introductory Physics I Lecture Notes are provided for the benefit
of my current (fall 2004) Duke Physics Class. Others who discover
them online are welcome to use and peruse them online for the purpose of
teaching or learning physics. All other use must conform to the Open Publication License
published on this website.
Back to top
- Lecture Notes for Electromagnetism and Optics
-
Introductory Physics II Lecture Notes are provided for the
benefit of my current (spring 2008) Duke Physics Class. Others who
discover them online are welcome to use and peruse them online or via a
download copy for the purpose of teaching or learning physics on an
individual basis. They may not be copied and redistributed in any form
and must be used with attribution.
At some point these notes will be published as a regular (but very
inexpensive) textbook in physics that perhaps can stand in for some of
the horribly expensive textbooks that are currently available. It also
has a rather unique approach to the teaching and learning of physics.
I cherish feedback and corrections from readers and users of all my
online teaching and learning resources, feel free to send me mail at
(obfuscated) rgb at phy dot duke dot edu.
Back to top
- Math for the Physical Sciences
-
Math for the Physical Sciences is being provided for the
benefit of my various Duke physics classes. Others who discover the
book online are welcome to use and peruse it online or via a downloaded
copy on their personal computer or laptop for their personal use.
It may not be copied and redistributed in any form and must be used with
attribution.
This book is under construction. At some point, when it is
sufficiently complete to be worth owning an inexpensive paper copy, it
will be published on paper via Lulu or otherwise so that readers aren't
forced to spend even more money and time print it out, punch it for a
three ring binder, and carry it around in that form.
I cherish feedback and corrections from readers and users of all my
online teaching and learning resources. Feel free to send me mail at
(obfuscated) rgb at phy dot duke dot edu.
Back to top
- Lecture Notes for Classical Electrodynamics
-
Physics 319 Lecture Notes
These lecture notes areprovided for the benefit of my current (fall
2006) Duke Physics Class. Others who discover it online are welcome to
use and peruse it and associated resources online for the purpose of
teaching or learning physics. All other use must conform to the Open Publication License
published on this website.
Note that these notes are derived from J. D. Jackson's Classical
Electrodynamics, 2nd and 3rd editions. However, they are
significantly augmented in certain places, most notably in its
discussion of vector spherical harmonics and Hansen functions, which is
derived from Larry Biedenharn's notes on the subject, and in its
discussion of radiation reaction and both Dirac and Wheeler and Feynman
papers regarding the same.
Feel free to contact me with any errors you might discover,
suggestions, etc. I'm in the process of converting the notes from the
Gaussian units favored in the 2nd edition to the natural units of the
current edition of Jackson, so it is entirely possible that there exist
discrepancies within the notes of order $4\pi$, or spurious factors of
$c$, in addition to garden variety algebraic errors.
Class Links
All the class material and lecture notes below are published under a
modified Open Publication License that permits unlimited free
noncommercial and personal use. It may not be published in any form or
media that is sold for profit. The details of the license can be viewed
here and in each available version viewed
below. Stats for this page can be viewed here.
Commercial publishers interested in producing an actual book (or
other media form) of the course material are encouraged to contact the author.
- Syllabus/Class Website
for Physics 41.
- This site currently contains only the class syllabus, but
eventually I may add links to e.g. homework assignments and other useful
stuff. Check it from time to time. There are printable versions as
well as an online version under this link.
- Introductory
Physics I.
- This is an online lecture-note style textbook for first semester
introductory physics. It is organized approximately as a chapter-a-week
exposition of intro physics. It is an advanced treatment,
suitable for use in a serious class (e.g. for majors) but of course it
should also be useful to students taking a course at any level of
physics. Note that this book is under construction and is not
yet complete (although it is getting close), but it is being provided so
that it can be of use to students as it is being worked on.
- Introductory
Physics II.
- This is an online lecture-note style textbook for second semester
introductory physics. It is organized approximately as a chapter-a-week
exposition of intro physics. It is an advanced treatment,
suitable for use in a serious class (e.g. for majors) but of course it
should also be useful to students taking a course at any level of
physics. Note that this book is under construction and is not
yet complete, but it is being provided so that it can be of use to
students as it is being worked on.
- Math
for the Physical Sciences
- Students of the physical sciences in high school and college need
to know a certain amount of mathematics. You simply cannot learn
physics, or chemistry, or even biology without a working knowledge of
numbers, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics. Yet students are
often separated by years from the courses where they took these
subjects, and may well have never used this knowledge. This
review of math is pretty much everything you need to know about math to
get through at least introductory courses in physics, engineering,
chemistry and so on. Note that this book is under construction
and is not yet complete, but it is being provided so that it can be of
use to students as it is being worked on.
- Classical
Electrodynamics
- Lecture notes for second-semester graduate level classical
electrodynamics -- Maxwell's equations, radiation theory, relativity.
At some point they will be extended for the first semester course as
well (electrostatics, magnetostatics, static polarization). Note that
this book is under construction; it is actually fairly complete
but lacks many figures it should have, problems, and its treatment of
radiation reaction is not yet complete. It is being provided so that it
can be of use to students as it is being worked on.
- Review
Guide and Problems for Introductory Physics I
- New! Review Problems for Physics 41, 53, 51 (Duke) or
general introductory physics, first semester (elsewhere).
- Octave/Matlab Programs.
- These are "starter" programs for Octave (preferred, free) or Matlab
(less desireable and non-free) designed to serve as templates for
programs you write to personally explore e.g. Newton's Laws, especially
for problems that include forces that are "too difficult" to treat with
analytic methods in an introductory course.
- Class Website for
Physics 51.
- This site has the "lecture notes" for physics 51, spring 2004
current through the week I am lecturing in. It provides several forms
(postscript, pdf, html) of the notes so it should be possible to find
one you can browse or view or print easily.
- Physics 42 Photos and
Projects
- A list of extra credit/honors projects done by various students
over the last few years, with some fun photos!
- Physics 42 Review Guide
This is a review guide for physics 42 students, primarily providing
shared access to all the problems I've ever put into quizzes,
hour exams, and final exams. In the fullness of time this list MAY be
comprehensive and organized, but at the moment it is pretty much a union
of the works, neither sorted nor unique.
Still, it should be fairly useful to students seeking good problems
to study. Students who can work ALL of these problems, perfectly, by
the final would be very unlikely to get worse that a B of some sort in
the class no matter what. Well, unless they hadn't done their
homework, so be sure that you do all of your homework and
not just the review guide problems...
Here is a lecture note
template tarball for anyone seeking to create a set of lecture notes
as an extra credit project. The rules for such a project: a) Get the
chapter approved. Wimpy chapters, like 1,2, or 12 are not ok. b) The
notes should include at least four example problems drawn from the
material, worked out as you would present them in class. It is ok for
one or two to come out of the text, but one or two should be "original".
c) DO all the required derivations in your notes. In class I do the
derivations at the board, but I know how. You're PREPARING to be able
to do the same thing, and the first step is to do the derivation
completely in your notes, so you've done it recently. You can always
then refer to your notes if you get lost trying it in a class. d)
Evidence of 12-16 hours total work. Figures are great (any postscript
figure can be included as shown in the template). Back when I used
notes, I needed some 8-12 pages of notes (pretty widely spaced notes as
in the template) to fill an hour lecture. Use this to guestimate what
is required to cover a chapter.
- Review
Material for Physics 41.
- This material will be updated right up to the final, so check it
regularly! In particular, the figures are currently "broken", but most
of them can be seen in the physics 53 review guide below. Again, try
the postscript or PDF
versions.
- Class
Website for Physics 42.
- This site may or may not end up ever having a proper set of
"lecture notes", but it will certainly have interesting and useful stuff
handy. Check it from time to time. Now with Physics 42 Review
Problems online to speed your study. For a hard copy (or to be able
to see the figures, which obstinately failed to go through latex2html)
click on this PDF
copy or this PS copy
of the review problems and notes.
- Class Pictures
- Various years are available:
Old Stuff! No Warranties!
- Review Guide
and Problems for Physics 53.
- The title says it all. This is also available in printable form in
postscript
and PDF
form.
- Physics 52.05 and 52.06
Website
- The class notes linked below on this page, while still there for a
bit, will go away soon. Do not use them.
- Physics 231 Notes
- Lecture notes for Physics 231 (Mathematical Methods of Physics
and Electrodynamics). Click on note
description to learn a bit about their layout (if it isn't obvious
from browsing). These notes are Copyright Robert G. Brown,
1997 (see legal notice at top of first page).
- Physics 51 Notes
- Lecture notes for Physics 51.03, 51.04. Click on note description to learn a bit about their layout
(if it isn't obvious from browsing). These notes are Copyright
Robert G. Brown, 1994,1995,1996 (see legal notice at top of first
page).
- Physics
52 Notes
- A new, improved, frames-based interface to the Physics 52.03,
52.04 class notes, which are also updated with recent contributions
and interactive problems.
- Physics 52
Notes
- The old, boring interface to the lecture notes for Physics 52.03,
52.04. Click on note description to learn a bit
about their layout (if it isn't obvious from browsing). These notes
are Copyright Robert G. Brown, 1994,1995 (see legal notice at top of
first page).
|
